Code Your Way To $5K

Have you wondered how you could make money coding from home right now?

Many people think they have to take years to learn everything before they can seek employment. That belief is understandable, especially when you see businesses requesting 3-5 years of experience or more in their job advertisements. The truth is, you can start earning money today while developing your coding skills with zero experience.

I’m sure you’re tired of other material telling you to go onto Fiverr and complete 20 jobs at $5 a gig to make $100. The math makes sense, but no one has time for that. Your time is precious. Instead, this guide will show you how you can do 1 job charging a fixed price up to $5K.

Once you become aware of how to price certain projects and get the hang of completing them on schedule successfully, you can then rinse and repeat this process however many times you would like. For example, each month you may choose to take on four smaller projects at $1000 each or one large $5K project.

It simply comes down to your availability, what you are comfortable handling, and what your goals are (financial, career development, etc.). This guide will show you how you can make money on your own terms without settling for less than you deserve.

So how can you start coding your way to $5K?

One word....

Freelancing.

According to the largest independent workforce survey, commissioned by Upwork and Freelancers Union, “The freelance workforce grew from 53 million in 2014 to 55 million in 2016 and currently represents 35% of the U.S. workforce.” With the evolution of technology, it is becoming even easier to start and find freelancing work.

How would your life be different if you had extra money and a better work-life balance?

The only thing that you need to make money coding from home or anywhere in the world is a computer, an Internet connection, and this blog post.

This post is written for people who want to earn more now, gain experience today, and live the life they desire as a freelance developer.

I will highlight 3 strategies to help you get the ball rolling. You will learn the exact type of projects you can work on, how to find clients, and what to charge for your services. No college degree or professional experience is required to get started.

I’ve compiled all my strategies and even more practical examples into an easy-to-reference training guide you can download and follow when you begin freelancing.

Milestone #1: Earn $100

Once you learn HTML and CSS (and maybe some PHP), you have the minimum web development skills necessary to start making money. Let’s begin with the first milestone and challenge of earning $100.

The types of projects that are worth charging $100 for include:

Creating a website for a friend or family member

Updating a local business website

Creating WordPress Themes

Debugging and correcting code

Quality Assurance testing

In addition to finding work via word-of-mouth, you can also find work on Upwork, the world's largest online workplace where businesses and professional freelancers connect and collaborate remotely. Or, you can sell your own themes on Theme Forest, the #1 marketplace for website templates.

Real Life Examples

On Theme Forest, designers and developers sell their own themes starting at $100.

With at least 60 purchases of their themes, these authors have earned $6K+ over time.

Looking on Upwork for web development job postings with a budget of $100, a company is looking for a developer to create a single page WordPress site for them.

But are freelance developers actually earning $100 on Upwork?

Take Archie M, who earned $100 fixing a bug in a web app API.

Now It's Your Turn!

I challenge you to find 5 opportunities enabling you to earn $100 with the skills you now have.

Will you sell themes on Theme Forest?

Which job posts will you apply to on Upwork?

Which family member, friend, or business will you create a web page for?

Once you’ve earned your first $100, move onto milestone 2.

Milestone #2: Earn $500

While working on your side projects, you have also continued developing your web development skills. Using your new superpowers, let’s begin with the second milestone ​of earning $500.

The types of projects that are worth charging $500 for include:

Build a website with multiple pages

Redesigning a website

Transitioning a simple website to the WordPress platform

Integrating services and APIs into websites

Real Life Examples

Freelance developer, Kate S., used her web development skills to redesign a website for $500. The client had originally created their website themselves on Wix.com; however, the client didn’t have much traffic and didn’t have any sales. The client was looking for a developer to review it and propose ideas of how their site could be redesigned to make it more attractive to customers and generate more sales.

Web developer, Bryan M., earned over $500 by building a website that solved a particular client need. The site needed to pull from a sports API (like ESPN) and populate a basic HTML site that's says either "Yes" or "No" depending upon whether the Kansas City Royals turned a double play in a game on the previous day. According to the client, “The entire site will just be a static HTML site except for the Yes/No text.”

Now It's Your Turn!

I challenge you to find 5 opportunities that enable you to earn $500 given the skills you currently have.

Will you redesign a website?

Will you build a custom website for a client?

Will you take on a project to integrate services and APIs into existing websites?

Once you’ve earned your first $500, move onto milestone 3.

Milestone #3: Earn $1,000

You’re beginning to take on more complex work and you’re building your portfolio with real-world projects – all while sharpening your web development skills!

If you've been following the Web Developer Playbook, at this point you're learning JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, or even WordPress.

Now it’s time to enter into the big league of freelance developers.

Let’s begin with the third milestone and challenge of earning $1,000.

The types of projects that are worth charging $1,000 for include:

Transitioning a large site to a WordPress platform

Adding interaction to an existing site

Building a site with multiple pages

Developing an interactive site from scratch

Designing premium WordPress Themes

Real World Examples

For a fixed price of $1,500, someone was looking for a developer to build out a website with multiple pages, totaling 10 pages in all. What would you do with $1,500?

As seen on Fox Business News, Entrepreneur, and other national media outlets, Hahna Kane Latonick has founded Invent With Code to help web developers go from $0 to $10K with their freelance developer business over 90 days, so that they have more time, money, and freedom to live life on their own terms.